'Bones and All' Starring Taylor Russell And Timothee Chalamet Is As Intriguing As It Is Bloody [NYFF Review]

When we think of horror films, there is often a feeling of edginesses and tension. Certain tropes and beats are used to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Though filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s latest movie, adapted from Camille DeAngelis’ novel of the same name, Bones and All, has horror elements, it subverts all of the traditions of the genre to offer something profoundly moving, gory, and rich.

The film opens in 1988 in rural Virginia. Maren (a mesmerizing Taylor Russell) has just moved to a small town with her quiet but slightly overbearing father (a criminally underused André Holland). 

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Jonathan Majors Flies High In J.D. Dillard's 'Devotion' (TIFF Review)

The heroes of the Korean War, America’s forgotten war, specifically Jesse Brown, who became the first Black aviator in Navy history, have been largely erased from history.

However, Sleight director J.D. Dillard, whose father is the second African American Blue Angels pilot, has always known Brown’s story, which is the subject of Devotion.

Adapted from Adam Makos' book of the same name, 'Devotion' opens in 1950.

We meet a strapping Brown (the always immaculate Jonathan Majors), who has endured every type of abuse and anguish to earn his place as a Navy fighter pilot. Dillard chooses to begin his story once Jesse is already established. Though the audience may not be privy to the navel and aviator lingo that take up much of the film’s beginning, Major is electric on the screen. His world further expands when we enter his quaint Rhode Island home, where his wife Daisy (a magnificent Christina Jackson) is buzzing about with their young daughter, Pam.

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The Sidney Poitier Apple TV+ Doc Is A Beautiful Tapestry Of A Life Well Lived (TIFF Review)

If you are lucky, you will live a good life. The days and years of your story will be filled with more triumphs than trials. Perhaps you will even have some successes, but most importantly, there will be love and peace. However, some people get a little bit more than that, which will reward and cost them simultaneously.

Sidney Poitier was a giant, but as the late actor relays to the audience in Reginald Hudlin’s Sidney opens, he was never supposed to live. Born two months premature on a tiny island in the Bahamas to tomato farmers, the Academy Award winner had little more than a third-grade education when he stepped off a boat in Miami at age 15.

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Viola Davis-Led Historical Epic 'The Woman King' Showcases The Pure Majesty of Black Women (TIFF Review)

As Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic, The Woman King, opens, a statuesque Black woman emerges from blades of tall grass. Clad in cowrie shells and coated in oil, she looks fearlessly out into the open plane before raising her fist and calling out into the darkness — a crop of similarly dressed Black women emerging behind her. And with that sound, a film centering on Black womanhood and the power of choice begins at a rip-roaring pace. 

Set in 1823 in the robust lands of Dahomey, West Africa — now called Benin, Prince-Bythewood introduces her audience to an illustrious kingdom. King Ghezo (John Boyega) has just ascended the throne, taking over for his brother. Though Dahomey is a pleasant and peaceful place, the ongoing slave trade with the Americans and Europeans continues to be a sore point among the citizens. The terror and barbarism of enslavement and the patriarchal structure of the society, along with the nearby dominating tribe called the Oyo, rings loudly. Dahomey owes its safety to General Nanisca (an enraptures Viola Davis), who leads her all-women army, the Agojie.

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Elegance Bratton's 'The Inspection' Starring Jeremy Pope And Gabrielle Union Is A Stellar Examination Of Resilience And Self-Acceptance (TIFF Review)

Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union are absolutely stellar in The Inspection.

Merriam-Webster defines the word inspection as “a careful and critical examination.” In his fiction debut film, filmmaker Elegance Bratton turns his sharp lens on his own story of rejection, perseverance, and self-acceptance. Set in Trenton, New Jersey, in the years following the September 11th terrorist attack, The Inspection follows Ellis French, a quiet young man whose sensitivity and sexuality have driven a wedge between him and his hostile and hyper-religious mother, Inez (Gabrielle Union, who also served as executive producer). Her rejection of Ellis at age 16 has led him to homelessness for nearly a decade of his life. The distance between himself and his mother wounds Ellis so profoundly that he decides to enlist in the Marines in a final effort to earn not just her respect but her love.

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